1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a dispenser incorporating a safety locking feature to retard access into compartments therein.
2. Prior Art
Certainly segmented or compartmented containers involving closures for maintaining pills, or the like, are not new. Some examples of such prior art devices involving containers with tops arranged to be moved so as to open a slot or a like passage into the container interior are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 173,543; 525,937; 770,485; 928,561; 1,817,562; 2,554,298, 3,020,659 and 3,921,806. Additionally and somewhat similar to the present invention, certain other prior art devices have utilized multiple plates or disks arranged over a housing containing slotted compartments, or the like. Some such devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 687,358; 1,280,827; 1,994,063; 2,554,710, and 2,953,242.
Some of the above cited prior art United States Patents include features common to the present invention as many of those patents, like the present invention, involve containers having slots, segments, or dividers therein to compartmentalize the container interior, and some involve either single plates or disks or multiple plates or disks that are movable to expose a passage or hole therethrough for allowing items to pass from the container interior through said aligned openings. None of the discovered patents or any like device within my knowledge, however, involve a safety locking arrangement, like the present invention that requires manual manipulation to unlock the arrangement that would not be apparent to a child. The Leccese U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,554,710, does involve, as a lock, a protuberance in one plate that fits within a seat, in another plate, which arrangement, though it appears to be similar to one embodiment of the safety lock of the present invention, does not involve locking of the plates together and is merely for discouraging movement of a rotating plate with respect to a stationary plate.
None of the cited patents, however, involve embodiments of safety locking arrangements that are like those taught by the present invention for restricting access, as by children, into the container interior without performance of certain manual steps thereon. While certain features or elements of the present invention may be shown in the above cited prior art, none of the art discovered, nor any device within the knowledge of the inventor, anticipates the particular type of dispenser of the present invention involving a flat cylinder arranged with disks across a top portion thereof, which disks are moved appropriately to expose a passage therethrough above a particular compartment, and involves a safety lock arrangement for holding the disks together where their respective openings are not aligned. The dispenser is, thereby, maintained in a closed state until certain manual steps are performed to unlock the disks allowing them to be rotated so as to align their openings. The present invention is, therefore, unlike any device within the knowledge of the inventor; and is, therefore, believed to be both novel and unique.